Living & Dying on the Sea Ice – Inaction on funding signals the end for climate & atmospheric science research in Canada that tracks everything from air quality & ocean conditions to storm activity, drought & atmospheric change. Scientific discoveries can mitigate adverse impacts of climate change on socio-economic activities, natural ecosystems & for animals such as polar bears, but without researchers, Canada will be left relying on other countries¹ research for information about its own environment.
Top scientist warns lack of stable funding for climate research will have serious consequences.
A lack of stable, long-term government funding for Canadian university-based climate and environment research will have serious consequences for the country, says one of Canada’s top scientists.
Andrew Weaver, a University of Victoria-based climate expert and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Climate Modeling and Analysis, says the situation is particularly dire because Canada is a northern country and will be affected by climate change more than most.
Last winter the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, established a decade ago to coordinate and fund weather and climate research projects, said it needed $25 million in annual funding over 10 years to continue its work. Previous government funding runs out in March 2011 and the foundation has not had its funding renewed since the Conservatives came to power four years ago.
The Harper government has now agreed to extend the foundation’s mandate to March 2012, but there’s no new federal money in sight for new projects or to build on existing ones.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said the government could not make funding decisions that far in advance.
“This basically spells the end for climate and atmospheric science research in Canada,” says Weaver. “It has taken nearly two decades for Canada to emerge as an international leader in this field, and the government is dismantling that in a few months.”
Weaver says the government doesn’t seem to understand that research grant funding is used to pay the salaries of young scientists in training who go on to be tomorrow’s innovators.
“It takes years to find the right staff and put labs in place, and just a few months of uncertainty to get them to move,” he said.
The Harper government says it’s investing in research through its Knowledge Infrastructure Program, but Weaver says beyond photo-ops, that funding won’t help.
“Sadly, you can’t run infrastructure without salary support for technical staff,” he warns. “Massive publicly-funded white elephants are dotting the labs of universities across Canada as people can no longer support technicians to use the infrastructure.”
Less than half of what the government says it’s investing on university and college research infrastructure is actually going to research related projects, according to a CAUT analysis of the government’s funding announcements.
“In my opinion, the current Canadian administration is anti-science,” Weaver said. “Rather than
encouraging science to inform policy as in the rest of the developed world, the Harper administration treats science as just another annoyance that should be prorogued so it doesn’t interfere with its ideological agenda.”